Erin Alexander’s sister-in-law recently died, and she was having a hard day. A barista (咖啡师) was too. The coffee machine had broken down and she was clearly stressed. Ms. Alexander ordered an iced green tea, and told her to hang in there. After picking up her order, she noticed a message on the cup: “Erin,” the barista had drawn next to a heart, “your soul is golden.” “I’m not sure I even necessarily know what ‘your soul is golden’ means,” said Ms. Alexander, who laughed and cried while recalling the incident. But the warmth of that small and unexpected gesture, from a stranger who had no idea of what she was going through, moved her deeply. “Of course, I was still really sad,” Ms. Alexander said. “But that little thing made the rest of my day.”
New findings, published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology, prove just how powerful experiences like Ms. Alexander’s can be. Researchers found that people who perform a random (随意的) act of kindness tend to underestimate how much the receiver will appreciate it. And they believe that miscalculation could hold many of us back from doing nice things for others more often.
A recent study consisted of eight small experiments that varied in design and participants. In one, for example, people were told they could give a cupcake away to strangers, and were asked to rate their own mood as well as how they believed the receiver would feel. The researchers found that those who got a cupcake as a result of a random act of kindness felt better than the person on the giving end thought they would. “People tend to think that what they are giving is kind of little; maybe it’s relatively unimportant,” Dr. Kumar, an assistant professor of marketing and psychology at the University of Texas, Austin, said. “But receivers are less likely to think along those lines. They consider the gesture to be significantly more meaningful because they are also thinking about the fact that someone did something nice for them.”
If you are not already in the habit of performing random kind acts—or if it does not come naturally to you—Marisa Franco, a psychologist, said to start by thinking about what you like to do. “It’s not about you being like, ‘Oh man, now I have to learn how to bake cookies in order to be nice.’ It’s about: What skills and talents do you already have? And how can you turn that into an offering for other people?”
1. What is the function of paragraph 1?| A．To provide some background information on the study. |
| B．To introduce the topic. |
| C．To praise the random acts of kindness. |
| D．To illustrate the power of kindness. |
| A．By stating the facts. | B．By listing examples. |
| C．By comparing the feelings. | D．By listing statistics. |
| A．Do whatever they like to do. | B．Learn how to bake cookies. |
| C．Do what they can to help others. | D．Try to gain some new skills and talents. |
| A．Nothing is impossible for a willing heart. | B．Well begun is half done. |
| C．One good turn deserves another. | D．Practice virtue however little it is. |
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【推荐1】Jorg Muller, an ecologist at the University of Würzburg, with his colleagues, proposes a way to measure the biodiversity—listen to the jungle by AI, in a paper published in Nature Communications.
The rainforests are very important and always alive with the sounds of animals, which is useful to ecologists. When it comes to measuring the biodiversity of a piece of land, listening out for animal caller is more effective than uncovering the bushes looking for tracks and paw prints. The latter analysis method is time-consuming, and it requires an expert pair of ears. Muller’s idea was to apply the principle of smartphone apps which can identify the sounds of birds, bats and mammals to conservation work.
The researchers took recordings from across 43 sites in the rainforests. Some sites were relatively primitive, old-growth forests. Others were areas that had just been cleared for pasture(牧场) recently. And some other original forests had been cleared but then abandoned, allowing themselves to regrow. The various calls were identified by an expert,and then used to construct a list of the species present. As expected, the longer the land had been free from agricultural activity, the greater biodiversity it hosted. Then it was the computer’s turn. “We found that the AI tools could identify the sounds as well as the experts,” says Dr. Muller.
Of course, not everything in a rainforest makes a noise. Dr. Muller and his colleagues used light traps to catch night-flying insects, and DNA analysis to identify them. They found that the diversity of noisy animals was a reliable representative for the diversity of the quieter ones, too.
Besides measuring the biodiversity, the results are also expected to be applied to outside ecology departments. Under pressure from their customers, firms like L’Oreal, a make-up company, and Shell, an oil firm, have been spending money on forest restoration projects around the world. Dr. Muller hopes that an automated approach to checking on the results could help monitor such efforts, and give a standard way to measure whether they are working as well as their sponsors say.
1. Why does Muller propose to measure biodiversity with AI?| A．To make a new conservation principle. |
| B．To seek away fit for hot environments. |
| C．To work more efficiently than manpower |
| D．To study the rainforests more specifically. |
| A．It agreed with the work from experts.. |
| B．It identified different types of raintarests. |
| C．It recorded more sounds in the abandoned forests. |
| D．It was used to restore the biodiversity for pasture. |
| A．DNA analysis is skeptical in the research. |
| B．Quiet animals are as diverse as noisy ones. |
| C．A rainforest is always full of various noises. |
| D．AI technology is used to catch the insects. |
| A．The research focuses on biodiversity only. |
| B．L’Oreal and Shell develop monitoring apps. |
| C．The research will assist in forest restoration. |
| D．AI’s help will attract some sponsors’investment. |
【推荐2】Apps such as Snapchat already give users the ability to add dog ears, colorful hats and other images onto smart phone photos. Virtual(虚拟的)mirrors are a little different. They are designed to let users see what they would look like wearing something that they might want to buy, such as eyeglasses and earrings.
A smart mirror is an app that turns the screen of a smart phone or other mobile device (装置) into a mirror, using its camera. As users look at the image(影像), the app will make it appear as if they are wearing the object. These smart mirror Apps are becoming popular among retail(零售的))businesses, which want to get people into their stores.
Peter Johnson is with FaceCake Marketing Technologies. He said, “Virtual try-on off the ability to try on a great many objects, many more than they would be able to try on if were no such kind of App.” Recently, Johnson showed how an app called Dangle works. It lets store customers try on different earrings(耳环)without touching a single pair Dangle can be used on a computer. It uses the app's facial recognition technology to make it appear as if the user is wearing earrings. The earrings in the image appear almost real.
With Dangle, retailers can show customers all of their earrings in a short period of time---something almost impossible without technology. There are other good reasons to use the app. Trying-on goods with the virtual mirror means there is nothing to damage, lose or at risk of being stolen.
Alec Gefrides is with the American technology company Intel. “We always hear about the big store closings,” said Gefrides. “But Intel sees technology becoming more important in providing customers with a better experience.”
1. What is a virtual mirror?| A．An app making the users more beautiful. |
| B．An app advising customers to buy what they need. |
| C．An app adding images onto smart phone photos. |
| D．An app changing the screen of mobile devices into a mirror. |
| A．The image. |
| B．The virtual mirror app. |
| C．The screen of mobile devices. |
| D．The facial recognition technology. |
| A．A virtual mirror app helps sell more goods. |
| B．Dangle can make customers look different. |
| C．Expensive objects in the store won't be stolen. |
| D．Gefrides thinks virtual mirrors help keep goods secure. |
| A．How to attract more customers |
| B．How to improve retail businesses. |
| C．The function and benefits of smart mirrors. |
| D．The importance of customers’ real experience. |
【推荐3】Chinese paleontologists (古生物学家) have determined that, about 47 million years ago, subtropical forests once existed on the high-altitude Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.
The conclusion, which appears in a paper published on Tuesday, was drawn based on the large number of fossils found in the Baingoin Basin at an altitude of nearly 5,000 meters during the second comprehensive scientific expedition to the plateau.
A joint team from the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden conducted the research on the fossils. By combining the findings and models, the team recreated the climate and altitude that existed 47 million years ago, showing that the central plateau had an altitude of just 1,500 meters and an annual average temperature of 19℃, says Su Tao, a researcher from the tropical botanical garden and first author of the paper.
“It was covered by thick forest and was rich in water and grass. It is fair to call it the ‘ShangriLa’ of ancient times,” Su adds.
The researchers have also found over 70 plant fossils, the majority of which are most closely related to plant life in today's subtropical or tropical regions.
“This is enough to show that the central part of the now high-altitude, freezing Qinghai-Tibet Plateau had flourishing subtropical plants 47 million years ago,” Su says.
The findings provide new evidence for the study of the evolutionary history of biodiversity and the evolution of the plateau's landscape, according to Zhou Zhekun, the paper's corresponding author and a researcher at the tropical botanical garden.
China launched the second comprehensive scientific expedition to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in June 2017, 40 years after the first. Lasting up to 10 years, the expedition will conduct a series of studies focusing on the plateau's glaciers, its biodiversity and ecological changes, and will also monitor the changes in climate.
1. How did the paper come to the conclusion?| A．Through the observation of the Baingoin basin. |
| B．Through the fossils found in scientific expedition. |
| C．Through the drawing of a large number of fossils. |
| D．Through the adventure on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. |
| A．The average altitude of the plateau was 1,500 meters. |
| B．“Shangrila”means a place with abundant water and grass. |
| C．The flourishing subtropical plants have covered the plateau. |
| D．The fossils found by researchers are tropical or subtropical plants now. |
| A．The Times. | B．The Wall Street Journal. |
| C．Chinese National Geography. | D．The Economist. |
| A．To instruct. | B．To educate. |
| C．To persuade. | D．To inform. |
【推荐1】There are two kinds of memory: short-term and long-term. Information in long-term memory can be recalled at a later time when it is needed. The information may be kept for days or years. Sometimes information in the long-term memory is hard to remember. Students taking exams often have this experience. In contrast, information in short-term memory is kept for only a few seconds, usually by repeating the information over and over.
Dr. Hunter studied short-term memory in rats. He used a special device which had a cage for the rat and three doors. There was a light in each door. First, the rat was placed in the closed cage. Next, one of the lights was turned on and then off. There was food for the rat only at this door. After the light was turned off, the rat had to wait a short time before it was released from its cage. Then, if it went to the correct door, it was rewarded with the food that was there. Hunter did this experiment many times. He always turned on the lights in a random order. Hunter’s results show that rats have a short-term memory of about ten seconds.
Later, Dr. Henning studied how people learning English as a second language remember vocabulary. To begin with, the participants listened to a recording of a native speaker reading a paragraph in English. Following the recording, the participants took a 15-question test where they circled the word they remembered having in the recording. Some of the questions had four choices that sounded alike, while others had four choices having the same meaning.
Henning found that people with a lower level in English made more of their mistakes on words that sound alike; people with a higher level made more of their mistakes on words that have the same meaning. Henning’s results suggest that beginning learners hold the sound of words in their short-term memory, while advanced learners hold the meaning of words in their short-term memory.
1. What can we learn from Paragraph 1?| A．Repetition contributes to people’s short-term memory. |
| B．The information in long-term memory is easier to forget. |
| C．People can rarely memorize the information learnt when young. |
| D．Students taking exams are experienced in long-term memory. |
| A．How the rat experiment was conducted. | B．The process of rats’ developing memory. |
| C．Why the rat experiment was carried out. | D．The relationship between rats’ memory and intelligence. |
| A．A Chinese expert in second language learning. |
| B．An American student learning a second language. |
| C．A British teacher teaching English as a second language. |
| D．A Korean employee learning English as a second language. |
| A．Beginning learners have a bad memory. |
| B．Beginning learners depend more on short-term memory. |
| C．Advanced learners easily remember words according to their pronunciation. |
| D．Advanced learners can confuse the words just heard with those meaning the same. |
【推荐2】For a long time, hikers in Japan have considered a bear bell essential. Its tinny ring is said to scare off the huge creatures. Nowadays, however, bear bells are increasingly useful on the way to the shops as well as in the wild. “The number of animals whether bears, boars or monkeys- is expanding, and they are going into villages and towns,” says Hiroto Enari of Yamagata University.
Japan is home to many species of wild animals, including both black and brown bears. It's estimated that the number of bears has been rising since 2000. In 2018, the number was close to 13,000. The reappearance has its roots in human demography (人口统计学): the reduction of Japan's population is especially obvious in rural areas, where it is deeply influenced by ongoing urbanization. Usually, the bears are afraid of entering a village with people around. The appearance of bears is more seen in villages where the population is falling fastest.
Hunting is declining in Japan, too. Government data suggest that the average hunter is now 68 years old. The country's many forests and mountains provide an expansive habitat for wild animals. Indeed, wild areas are growing as foresters and farmers die off. Bears become particularly bold, running into villages for persimmon.
While some welcome the reappearance of bears, others suffer from it. Every year bears injure scores of people, and kill several. Besides, deer can cause damage to farmland. Simple solutions, such as changing the layout around villages or putting up fences, are rarely used. Instead, many bears are caught or killed. In 2013 the government resolved to reduce half the number of certain types of deer, boars and monkeys by 2023. “Japan is struggling to adapt to the changing power balance between animals and people," says Mr. Enari.
1. Why is a bear bell necessary for Japanese hikers?| A．Because it is tinny and convenient. |
| B．Because it can be used in the wild. |
| C．Because it can make special noises. |
| D．Because it can frighten wild animals away. |
①Hunting is not as popular as it used to be.
②Bears can enter villages without people's permission.
③Japan' s population in the countryside is falling fast.
④Foresters and farmers are not allowed to kill bears.
| A．①④ | B．②④ | C．①③ | D．②③ |
| A．chose | B．determined | C．managed | D．refused |
| A．Japan is trying to balance animals with humans. |
| B．People are in favour of the reappearance of bears. |
| C．Changing the layout or putting up fences is useless. |
| D．The reappearance of bears is harmful to human beings. |
【推荐3】During the migration (迁徙) season, which usually begins in late August and runs through November, it is usual for about two to three million raptors (猛禽) to fly through Panama City. “But this year, nothing was showing up in Panama City,” says Jenn Sinasac, a biologist and naturalist guide in Panama. Usually, it takes about a day for the birds to get to Panama City from the west. But, Sinasac adds, “Nothing was coming through for about four or five days.” Suddenly, on November 2, the raptors came in crowds. “It was astonishing,’ Sinasac says.
On this single day, 2,105,060 raptors flew over the city. It closed the airport until the birds had safely passed through. The official counters from the Panama Audubon Society (PAS) were busy doing the counts for two days. The PAS has been counting the raptors since 2004. So far, the record for a single day’s number has been up to about 900,000. Trained volunteers track the birds and the results are shared on HawkCount.org. In this way, International organizations could see the data and recommend strategies to make sure that the yearly migration will continue successfully.
Panama’s special shape makes the city the best migratory pathway for raptors and other bird types. The country makes a horizontal (水平的) line. At its narrowest point it is just 30 miles across. “The geography creates a funneling effect (漏斗效应), which helps birds save energy,” explains Sinasac.
The best time for tourists and locals to experience the migration is between October I and November 18. Many tour companies, like Canopy Tower, provide birding tours.
The beaches at Bocas del Toro, Semaphore Hill in Soberania National Park, and Cerro Ancon, the hill overlooking Panama City, all are perfect viewing places.
1. How might Sinasac feel before November 2?| A．Confident. | B．Anxious. | C．Embarrassed. | D．Astonished. |
| A．To try to break a world record. |
| B．To help the airport make professional plans. |
| C．To respond to calls from the scientific community. |
| D．To contribute to data sharing and protection efforts. |
| A．Why raptors migrate over land. | B．Why raptors crowd into Panama. |
| C．How raptors save energy in flight. | D．How raptors choose a migratory pathway. |
| A．Make bird-watching recommendations. | B．Compare a couple of birding tour routes. |
| C．Introduce tourist attractions of Panama City. | D．Call on tourists and locals to protect raptors. |
